Secretary of State: Voter-registration allegations groundless

Allegations of rampant fraudulent voter registrations are unfounded, Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett said.

There have been rumors online Yuma County found as much as 65 percent of the 3,000 voter-registration forms submitted by activist groups Mi Familia Vota and One Vote Arizona to be invalid, Bennett said in a press release issued Wednesday.

Groups like Mi Familia Vota have registered people to the state's Permanent Early Voting List since June. These groups submitted "a few thousand" applications, according to the release, and 45 percent of them were rejected -- mostly because the applicant was already on the list.

Voters receive only one ballot.

No county election officials have reported an "inordinate number" of invalid registrations, the release said, and there have not been reports of coordinated attempts to get around voter-registration laws.

The initial inquiry into these allegations is complete, Bennett said in the release.

In related news, Bennett and other state officials, including Attorney General Terry Goddard, plan to appeal U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals' Tuesday ruling, which struck down Arizona's proof-of-citizenship requirement for voter registration.

The proof-of-citizenship requirement is a provision in Proposition 200, which voters approved in 2004. Bennett told the Republic Tuesday that requirement helped make sure that there is no voter fraud, and state officials intend to challenge the ruling all the way up to the Supreme Court if necessary.

-- Michelle Ye Hee Lee

http://www.azcentral.com/members/Blog/P ... der/102913